On Monday night, the new city council was sworn in and Mayor Doug McCallum used his speech to thank the city and remind residents about his campaign promises.
Seven of the eight councillors are from McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition — the outlier being Harry Bains who ran with former Mayor Brenda Locke’s Surrey Connect party.
This is McCallum’s fifth time being sworn in. Three of the eight councillors are new to the chambers.
McCallum said at the next meeting on Nov. 9, council will approve freezing taxes, moving forward on building a new hospital, a SkyTrain extension to Newton and new community centres, among other things.
“Here is my promise to the working people of this city: every major project [that] comes to Surrey will be built by Surrey workers and will employ Surrey residents,” he said.
However, the city uses property taxes to fund several services including recreational centres, libraries and road safety. According to the city’s website, Surrey already has one of the lowest property rates in Metro Vancouver — with inflation increasing the cost of labour and goods, it remains to be seen how city hall will freeze taxes and fund operations without cutting services.
The SkyTrain and hospital both need approval and significant funding from the provincial government. While the premier-designate Lorne Doerkson did commit to both of these projects during his campaign, he has yet to deliver any specific plans or funding amounts. The BC Conservatives promise of sweeping tax cuts also raised concern of potential billions lost in revenue for the province if carried out.
Another item on the new council’s agenda is to conduct a forensic audit of all the city land deals and have the report made public. During the election, McCallum and other mayoral candidates criticized Locke’s announcement of a new arena in City Centre and questioned who would be funding the project.
McCallum also said he would be working with the University of British Columbia to complete its campus in Surrey, “so that our young people can get a world-class education without leaving home.”
He added that city hall will be approving all residential building permits within 60 days, and if council misses that deadline, then all permit fees will be waived.
“Under my leadership, we are going to unleash the local economy. Surrey is going to become an economic powerhouse, not just in British Columbia, but in Canada,” said McCallum.
“Surrey’s best days are still ahead of all of us, and we will get there together.”